The watercolor-style portraits

[Gairnulf]

There is one thing I need confirmed - are these sample watercolor portraits just sketches, lacking the full detail, or are they real exmples of what watercolor portraits will look like in the game?

Edited February 3, 2017 by Gairnulf

[Bobby Null]

So I pushed pretty hard for these. Of course being a crazy designer, I wanted full painted portraits for every NPC in the game (one can dream, right?). For giggles Adam and I projected out some costs for something like that and it was beefy to say the least and well out of scope. The water color portraits were a compromise (Josh's idea if I recall correctly) and I'll admit, I felt a little iffy about them when I looked at them individually. This isn't a knock on the art, it's just a reflection of how long Matt Hansen spent on each one. When we saw the cost (time) vs. quality the decision was a no brainer.  It was either have a few fully painted portraits for main NPCs or have a metric ton of water color portraits for dozens of NPCs. When you see them in game, they make the conversation far more engrossing IMO.

[IndiraLightfoot]

So I pushed pretty hard for these. Of course being a crazy designer, I wanted full painted portraits for every NPC in the game (one can dream, right?). For giggles Adam and I projected out some costs for something like that and it was beefy to say the least and well out of scope. The water color portraits were a compromise (Josh's idea if I recall correctly) and I'll admit, I felt a little iffy about them when I looked at them individually. This isn't a knock on the art, it's just a reflection of how long Matt Hansen spent on each one. When we saw the cost (time) vs. quality the decision was a no brainer.  It was either have a few fully painted portraits for main NPCs or have a metric ton of water color portraits for dozens of NPCs. When you see them in game, they make the conversation far more engrossing IMO.

I mean, they are definitely pretty cool, but will they digress too far from the artistic style used so far in PoE1, or is PoE2 generally draped in a more cheerful tone? 

[Messier-31]

So I pushed pretty hard for these. Of course being a crazy designer, I wanted full painted portraits for every NPC in the game (one can dream, right?). For giggles Adam and I projected out some costs for something like that and it was beefy to say the least and well out of scope. The water color portraits were a compromise (Josh's idea if I recall correctly) and I'll admit, I felt a little iffy about them when I looked at them individually. This isn't a knock on the art, it's just a reflection of how long Matt Hansen spent on each one. When we saw the cost (time) vs. quality the decision was a no brainer.  It was either have a few fully painted portraits for main NPCs or have a metric ton of water color portraits for dozens of NPCs. When you see them in game, they make the conversation far more engrossing IMO.

 

I think I'd rather want less portraits but fully painted for the most important characters in the game, like

• Iovara,
• Thaos,
• Galvino
• and Renengild.

Also a few more shoulda have the portrait, like

• Duke Aevar Wolfgrin,
• Lady Webb,
• Maerwald

And that would be enough in my opinion.

Edited February 3, 2017 by Messier-31

[Gairnulf]

So I pushed pretty hard for these. Of course being a crazy designer, I wanted full painted portraits for every NPC in the game (one can dream, right?). For giggles Adam and I projected out some costs for something like that and it was beefy to say the least and well out of scope. The water color portraits were a compromise (Josh's idea if I recall correctly) and I'll admit, I felt a little iffy about them when I looked at them individually. This isn't a knock on the art, it's just a reflection of how long Matt Hansen spent on each one. When we saw the cost (time) vs. quality the decision was a no brainer.  It was either have a few fully painted portraits for main NPCs or have a metric ton of water color portraits for dozens of NPCs. When you see them in game, they make the conversation far more engrossing IMO.

I'm of course completely uninformed saying the following, and it's totally subjective. My worry is that the watercolor portraits as shown, look too rough, too mundane, too basic to be really giving any more characterisation that isn't given through dialogue. And in that case, I don't see a point in having them, in the effort of doing them. I'd rather have half or a third of the quest givers having high quality portraits than all the quest givers looking like "random human mage #347".

Edited February 3, 2017 by Gairnulf

[Ulicus]

Ultimately, as long as there are a bunch more painted portraits to choose from at character creation -- and those portraits can be accurately reflected on my character* -- I'll be happy whatever they decide to do regarding watercolours.



* If I boot up DEADFIRE for the first time and still can't create an Aumaua with a beard even though the best Aumaua portrait has one . . . well. Then I'm going to be miffed.